Transgender Activist & Homecoming King Tragically Commits Suicide

18-year-old Blake Brockington died after an apparent suicide last Monday. Brockington was crowned homecoming king at East Mecklenburg High School, where he attended last year, making history as the first transgender homecoming king in North Carolina. It was after Brockington won the title that he realized how terrible people could be.

?That was single-handedly the hardest part of my trans journey,? he said. ?Really hateful things were said on the Internet. It was hard. I saw how narrow-minded the world really is.?

Brockington had always felt like a male and he came out publicly as transgender in the 10th grade. ?Throughout my life, I haven?t really been treated equally as a male, so I?ve always wanted this, always, and everybody has always told me I couldn?t do it,? he told alocal NBC affiliate at the time. ?Even…